Mage build optimization

[Kultyz]

Hi,

i'm running a 4 man party campaign with friends and i'm trying to optimize the following character idea.

Main skill focus: Aero + Hydro
Weapon: Staff

Party is composed by: DW Warfare/Scoundrel physical damage + Huntsman/Polymorph/scoundrel + Wand Mage Pyro/Geo/Summon

From my research i felt that focusing on Aero for electric damage, with Hydro for Raid + heals + deep freeze and then add Necro to get at least blood rain and poly to get jellyfish skin and a few extra atributes.

Talents i have Pet pal and Hothead so far.

We are all at lvl 7.

My current stats are 22Int / 12 Con / 12 Wit
Aero 5 / Hydro 2 / Poly 1 / Necro 0
(some aero and Int are gear bonus)

How would you guys continue/change this build idea to optimize it for both damage and some control?

[wendigo211]

Don't push Aero or Hydro past 2 to start, instead push poly and put the extra attribute points in Int. You can put 1 point in Necro (but really you could just use an item). Once you max Int you can use the mirror to start taking points from poly until it drops to 5. You can either put points in Aero or Hydro, or go Huntsman for the high ground damage bonus, or scoundrel if you're using Savage Sortilege.

Aero and Hydro act just like Warfare does for melee, so it has the best damage scaling for your attacks. However, it also only increases the damage type of the appropriate school. While high ground or crit multiplier affect all your spells.

[Kultyz]

that mirror stat idea is interesting.

about huntsman/scoundrel builds for mages i'm trying to avoid them as i will only dead aero/hydro damage and i feel it's not much of a problem to have both with high stats.

Thing is i'm not sure if i should try something like Aero 10 / Hydro 5 / Poly 5 / necro 1 or Aero 10 / Hydro 10 / poly 2 / Necro 1 (with gear stats)

And since i will be only using Staffs, is it worth placing a point there or two?

[phantommail]

Blood rain for what ? Necro is good on cleric-type casters. When you using just support water spells ( no need int ) and phys-damage necro spells ( bonus form warfare )

But of you wanna necro then pump it to 3 for some nice blood rain- grasp of the starved-global cooling-ice breaker combo to help melee and other mage.

[Ashera]

What I've found playing my hydro/aero...
I wish I made it an elf. Jellyfish skin + sacrifice flesh would have made elemental affinity so much easier for aero.

Hydro, does a surprising amount of damage and the cc feels more consistent.
Level them evenly. You will find enemies highly resistant to both hydro/aero, so get a few points into geo and help the team out with oil patches. You also want geo for fortify, actually I feel everyone in the group should have geo/hydro for restoration/fortify/magic shield.

You'll feel a bit more gimped than your mage counterpart until later levels, but when you start getting high end skills... (with elemental affinity) dazing bolt / closed circuit / superconductor you will have a massive aoe with crazy numbers, if enemies all group within that range you will probably finish the fight there.
I would honestly just ditch the staff all together and go with a lightning or water wand (or both) and a shield.

savage sortilege, elemental affinity, hot headed, far out man, comeback kid, thepawn/executioner
P.s water balloons are your best friend, rain has huge cooldown.

[Ashera]

Originally posted by phantommail:

Blood rain for what ? Necro is good on cleric-type casters. When you using just support water spells ( no need int ) and phys-damage necro spells ( bonus form warfare )

But of you wanna necro then pump it to 3 for some nice blood rain- grasp of the starved-global cooling-ice breaker combo to help melee and other mage.

>When you using just support water spells ( no need int )

Support water spells scale of hydro level, 5% extra damage healing and shielding from water skills per point.
Same with Geo support skills.

>phys-damage necro spells ( bonus form warfare )
Bonus is from INT. I'm unsure if the warfare 5% physical damage applies to this as it's magic that deals physical damage... bit of a gray area.

[Tally]

The problems I see in your build (in my opinion ofc):
1) Don't use Staff. It sucks. Honestly the only reason I see to use staff would be to put a huge load of defense on yourself, max a single magic tree that matches the staff damage to increase it, and then play a melee mage. Wands are just so much better.
2) Hothead requires you to be full VIT to claim the benefits, but soon you will find physical damage enemies knocking your armor off in 1-2 hits. I never thought Hothead was worth it as a mage, instead I'd get Far Out Man, Savage Sortilege, The Pawn/Executioner... Any of those.

[phantommail]

Necro spells do not scale with skill level. Just read what it says - add % healing.
Warfare 5% applies for sure.

[Ashera]

Originally posted by Tally:

The problems I see in your build (in my opinion ofc):
1) Don't use Staff. It sucks. Honestly the only reason I see to use staff would be to put a huge load of defense on yourself, max a single magic tree that matches the staff damage to increase it, and then play a melee mage. Wands are just so much better.
2) Hothead requires you to be full VIT to claim the benefits, but soon you will find physical damage enemies knocking your armor off in 1-2 hits. I never thought Hothead was worth it as a mage, instead I'd get Far Out Man, Savage Sortilege, The Pawn/Executioner... Any of those.

Shield + fortify makes hothead work, which makes savage sortlige work better.
Wands are needed for aero/hydro. You need to apply 2 debuffs to get your stun off. Being able to do so from range is essential, as is turning that water under them to ice/electric from your vantage point.
staff does suck, unless you are pyro (OP get your pyro guy to go staff) and use sparking swings buff.

[Hoo the fool]

Fane + Transform to Elf with mask + Adrenaline + Any Source Skill + Apotheosis is all-in-one set.

[dergefata]

Honestly I don't find that high damage output is all that helpful in this game. I'm finding (Tactician mode, level 17, just going to the nameless isle) that generalist builds are much more useful than specialist or high damage builds. I'm getting all four of my characters to 10 Summoning so the Incarnate Champions / Bone Widows / Fire Slugs they each summon are powerful; those summons do plenty of damage and I'm finding that having 15-20k health in disposable units is what gets me through the hard fights. Basically I summon one or two big summons on turn one and then spend the next two turns repositioning enemies (Teleport and/or Nether Swap) and setting up environmental hazards. My biggest problem with the build is that everyone needs a lot of Memory but the sheer number of options with four sword-and-board characters who've all got 2-3 points each in aero, hunt, geo, hydro, necro, pyro, and warfare plus 10+ in summoning makes the Memory sink a lot less painful.

I mean, it's Larian. I've no doubt that you can make a strong, workable party in a hundred ways. I just don't personally see a way to one-shot everything on Tactician, and even with 30+ constitution and 30-50% resists I'm still getting one-shotted by bosses pretty regularly, so the whole "hit the thing that isn't real anyway" approach looks pretty compelling.

[Iry]

Yeah, Hydro is amazing. Armor of Frost cures some very common conditions that Resting doesn’t cover, solid heals, good CC, and surprisingly high damage for an element that is not heavily resisted.

The only downside is... very few attack spells, so you can’t make a rotation like you can with Geo/Pyro.

[Magistairs]

I would like to give my advice about staffs : my mage became insanely strong when he got a staff with 20% crit
He is currently at 75% and can win fights alone starting with thunder storm and just waiting
So use staffs if you find good ones

[Kultyz]

Well very interesting thoughts here.

I do like control and not just damage hence i want some utility.

The 1 point in necro was for the blood rain to make blood puddles that i can electrify, so not sure if it's worth it (and i haven't placed any point there yet)

Regarding polymorph i like that it gives more atributes and i was considering the medusa and jellyfish skin, but i see most of you speaking about he 5 poly, is it worth it for the reset cooldowns or is there something i'm missing?

Another thing is Vacuum Touch seems a good spell but it requires Necro 3, not sure if it's worth the 3 points?

Staffs i see they are weaker but, 2 mages using wands might make us a bit starved on figinding 4 good wands instead of just 2 or are there many late game?

[Ashera]

Originally posted by Kultyz:

Well very interesting thoughts here.

I do like control and not just damage hence i want some utility.

The 1 point in necro was for the blood rain to make blood puddles that i can electrify, so not sure if it's worth it (and i haven't placed any point there yet)

Regarding polymorph i like that it gives more atributes and i was considering the medusa and jellyfish skin, but i see most of you speaking about he 5 poly, is it worth it for the reset cooldowns or is there something i'm missing?

Another thing is Vacuum Touch seems a good spell but it requires Necro 3, not sure if it's worth the 3 points?

Staffs i see they are weaker but, 2 mages using wands might make us a bit starved on figinding 4 good wands instead of just 2 or are there many late game?

Blood rain costs 2ap. Use a waterballoon (way more controlable, you can acurately see where the water will go)
I have my hydro/aero mage as an elf. Jellyfish skin + sacrifice flesh = lightning pool under me for 1source point as I regain one ap from sac-flesh. Elemental affinity from there...
Closed circuit/superconductor is awesome here. So is dazling bolt.
Ele affinity will mostly be of use on water spells as simply chucking a water balloon is easiest way to get an element under you. This makes icefan and hailstrike cost 2 instead of 3, and the ones that cost 2, cost 1.

Regarding polymorph..... Apotheosis. Apotheosis. Apotheosis. This will cost 3 source points to cast. BUT it will cause all spells to cost -3 less source points for 2 turns. You can cast a good 4 different source skills there.
If you have adrenaline, you could apotheosis (3sp 2ap) then thunderstorm (3sp 4ap) then adrenaline (+2ap) then closed circuit (2sp 2ap)
next turn, 4ap to use on another high cost source power from another skill, perhaps hailstorm. Speaking from exerience, this is MASSIVE aoe damage, a bunch of stuns and a bunch of ice under enemy toes.

Polymorph is also good for any mage with split schools as each point in INT increases damage equally to both schools, while 1 point in say pyro will only increase pyro. Also, wings+medusa head on your mage is amazing.
Poly is the best way to increase mage damage, if that mage is using 3 or more schools for damage.

Vacuum touch - not worth

staffs I would only use with a firemage, and use sparking swings buff on it.
equip the mage with either water+air wand to cause stun on basic attack or poison+fire to cause explosion on basic attack. Or role with an air wand and a shield, toss water balloons and hit enemy for profit.

[Armando Broncas]

The way to optimize them is to make them all physical attackers.